Sacramento
Virtual Schools
By Seth
Sandronsky.
|
Miriam Lyons has 25 years of teaching experience and now works
in a hybrid online and brick-and-mortar-classroom program, part of the Elk
Grove Unified School District Virtual Academy.
|
When Kelly Krug’s son Ben struggled
academically, the Fair Oaks mom looked for
options that provided computerized instruction. Called “virtual schools,” these
new classrooms allow students to learn course work entirely via online methods.
Krug enrolled Ben, and he thrived—but a new study on virtual schools says that
his success story is an exception to the rule.
An 80-page national report released
last week on full-time virtual schools found problems with student performance
and also a lack of oversight of public dollars spent on this brave new cyber
world.
Some private virtual-school
companies operating here in Sacramento have grown enrollment by more than 20
percent annually over the past several years. This means that tens of millions
of taxpayer dollars go toward these new online classrooms, which has some
critics worried.
“[There’s] lagging performance
[and] lots of taxpayer money at stake, and very little solid evidence to
justify the rapid expansion of virtual schools,” said University of Colorado at
Boulder professor Alex Molnar, who edited the new National Education Policy
Center study.
His report shows that virtual
schools trail traditional brick-and-mortars in performance and graduation
rates. “In the 2010-2011 school year, for instance, 52 percent of
brick-and-mortar district and charter schools met AYP [Adequate Yearly
Progress, the federal government’s measurement for student development based on
standardized tests], contrasted with 23.6 percent of virtual schools.”
Read the entire report at
Sacramento News and Review.
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